MUN: Chair Calls On Members & Friends To support Ending the use of Taser against people locked in psychiatric wards

“Taser has been used against patients detained in secure psychiatric settings for more than 10 years: But the culture of cover-up that dominates these sectors and the unequal power balance between those subject to such treatment and statutory providers and the police has silenced public debate around this issue.

The elected Chair of MUN (Manchester Users Network) Paul Reed has called on all their members and friends to instruct their elected MP’s via Twitter and request them to urgently support this very important debate. He said ” To taser anyone seems extreme and perhaps if a human was actively attacking a child one could warrant such measures; but to use on people who suffer mental health illness is behavior unfit of the standards of this English system of which I still trust. “

He added that he believed the Calls for a ban on Taser use against people in locked psychiatric wards to be debated in Parliament was a right move hopefully to lead to the outlawing of the practice; That was a window that needed closing” he concluded.

Our Aims: About Us

To support users and ex-users of psychiatric services in the Manchester area. The organisation provides a forum for services users to have a bona fide say in planning and provision of mental health services.

Protesters in King’s Lynn fight against mental health service cuts

Protesters took to the streets of King’s Lynn to voice their anger at what they described as “continuous” cutbacks to mental health services in west Norfolk.

Mental health cuts protest

A protest march against cuts to mental health services and the Fermoy Unit at the QEH took place in King's Lynn town centre. Picture: Matthew Usher.

More than 100 campaigners marched from The Walks through the town centre before finishing outside the Majestic Cinema.

Peter Smith, former parliamentary candidate for south-west Norfolk said: “We are in the fight of our lives here.”

The protest was triggered by the Fermoy Unit, an in-patient NHS facility in Lynn for mental health, which campaigners say faces an uncertain future. The unit was briefly closed to new admissions earlier this month, but reopened last week, albeit with fewer beds.

Mr Smith said: “In my lifetime we have never had to fight like this, but what is the alternative?”

But Debbie White, director of operations for Norfolk at the Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, said there were now no plans to axe the Fermoy Unit.

She added: “It is right that mental health services should be valued and funded on the same level as acute health services, and it is understandable people feel passionate about the Fermoy Unit remaining open.”

Labour party activist Jo Rust insisted the issue would not disappear. She said: “They have been talking about closing it for a long time. We will fight and we will not let them do that.”

Beth Anthony, 18 of Dersingham, said: “We are here to protest against the continuous cuts to the mental health service, we think it’s unacceptable. My younger brother suffers from poor mental health and has to travel to London... That is to the detriment of my family because we have to pay for him to go down by train every single month.”